The Barnacle family has a storied history in Ontario, Canada, living in comfort in Lawrence Park, a wealthy neighborhood in...
Logan’s debut novel describes the ribald and twisted adventures of an affluent Toronto girl and her problematic clan.
The Barnacle family has a storied history in Ontario, Canada, living in comfort in Lawrence Park, a wealthy neighborhood in north Toronto. After the tragic death of a young daughter, their other daughter, Marie Dorée, becomes something of a family treasure. Nonetheless, she and her brothers live in fear of their rage-filled father, Raul, who cracks the whip at the slightest opportunity. Their mother, Tabitha, is an old-school, frugal woman who dispenses increasingly convoluted rationalizations for her controlling ways. Through endless attempts at preserving their family’s status in society, the Barnacles try to either guide or force their children into becoming adults that will be worthy of the family name. Marie finally escapes to college but begins her adult life by causing disaster after disaster both personally and, later, professionally. Her meddling family is always around to dispense advice and commands and to make every situation worse, until it becomes obvious that Marie may never break free of their collective grip. Told in a satirical voice that readily skewers “the lower upper-class” of Toronto, Logan’s narrative is at once intellectual, literate, weirdly funny, and unsettling. As Marie’s adventures take her from one awful relationship to another, including a turn in India and a rather odd friendship with a neurotic Scotsman, Logan uncovers bizarre and perverse desires in characters that otherwise would be vividly described caricatures. Logan has written an absorbing, frightening, and sometimes–long-winded satire (one character’s recitation goes on for eight pages, for example). The novel’s characters have intense, inward ruminations that lean toward the overwrought. The power of Logan’s storytelling, however, saves this book from being a simple farce and makes it something more like tragedy.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9940098-0-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Fire & Ash Publishers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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